Deep within the Imperial Palace of Terra, in the Golden Throne Hall.
Kieran and his party—including Carl, the Mighty Warriors, and the accompanying Guilliman, Sanguinius, Horus, and Lion—stood solemnly beneath the hall's cold, empty, dizzyingly lofty dome.
Their gazes were all fixed upon the enormous Golden Throne, vast as a mountain.
Upon it was a... grand, broken remnant, bound, consumed, and sacrificed.
Even Kieran, who had lived long and seen much, wore a rare trace of gravity on his gentle face.
Carl's gaze behind her lenses was sharp as a blade. It swept rapidly across the throne's structure, the data streams running through its energy conduits, and the complex energy spectrum radiating from the Emperor's ruined body. Her brows were tightly furrowed, as though she were calculating something at tremendous speed.
The Mighty Warriors held their breaths even more tightly. They could feel that merely standing here made their souls seem as though they were being torn apart and burned by an invisible force.
Guilliman, Sanguinius, and the others lowered their heads. This was the... father they had fought for, humanity's beacon? Such a sorrowful and cruel form of existence was the Imperium of Man's deepest tragedy, and their eternal pain.
Tragic... The thought arose in the minds of all the outsiders almost at once.
Humanity's strongest being, humanity's guardian god, sustained the survival of his species in such a form—burning himself to resist eternal darkness.
The impact of this sight surpassed anything words could describe.
Just as everyone was immersed in the oppressive atmosphere—
Buzz!
An irresistible will, vast as a river of stars pouring down, descended without warning! It was not an attack, but a gentle yet absolutely forceful pull!
Kieran instantly sensed the source and intent of that will. A flash of understanding crossed his eyes. He